Machine-to-machine (M2M) communication systems may involve an arrangement of devices in a network to periodically transmit and/or receive relatively small amounts of data to a remote application/server. Machine-to-machine systems are sometimes referred to as an “Internet of things” to exchange information between a subscriber station and a server in a core network via a wireless link with a base station or a wired link, or alternatively between other subscriber stations, wherein the exchange of information may be carried out without requiring or involving human interaction. For example, field data may be gathered by the M2M devices and sent back to a monitoring station for collection and analysis. In such an example, the M2M devices may comprise parking meters. When the parking meter is full of coins and is ready to be emptied, a given parking meter may communicate its state to a monitoring server coupled to the network, in which case an operator may then go that parking meter and remove the coins stored therein. In yet another example, M2M devices may be deployed to monitor for the presence of a specified hazardous substance such as a chemical agent, a biological agent, and/or a radionuclide wherein the M2M device includes an appropriate sensor.
In an M2M system, a large number of M2M devices in a group may be served in a domain of an M2M base station, involving a large amount of interaction between the base station and the M2M devices. As a result, the overall control signaling overhead may be very high. In general, M2M services involve a small amount of infrequent transmissions that are time controlled wherein the data is transmitted in a predefined interval. If a dynamic resource scheduling approach were to be applied to an M2M system, the control signaling may be on the order of about 50 percent. Application of persistent scheduling in an M2M system may be utilized to reduce the control signaling overhead. However, a typical persistent scheduling system may be inefficient for M2M devices because it is directed toward a single user, but the data packets for M2M devices generally are too small to occupy multiple persistent durations over a long interval.
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